FS1 is canceling America’s Pregame

The FS1 graveyard just picked up another headstone. America’s Pregame is the network’s latest casualty and joins a long list including Crowd Goes Wild, Fox Football Daily, Fox Soccer Daily, Fox College Saturday, Mike Francesa, etc, etc.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that APG will get the axe and be replaced with *shudders* a Colin Cowherd clip show. Woof.

FSI cancels "America's Pregame" daily studio show; replaces it with a Best-Of show from Colin Cowherd. Tomorrow's SBD has the details.

America’s Pregame debuted in the spring of 2014 with co-hosts Mike Hill and Molly McGrath replacing a previously canceled program – Fox Football Daily. Its main emphasis was to give FS1 some nightly live studio coverage that leveraged its regional networks around the country to provide relevant analysis for the night’s games. With Fox’s live event schedule, it also served as shoulder programming for soccer, UFC, and more. McGrath is currently a sideline reporter for Fox’s college football coverage, it’s unknown whether Hill will be assigned elsewhere at this time. McGrath tweeted the following:

Thank you to the talented producers and amazing staff of America's Pregame. We will always be a family. pic.twitter.com/MWjpE41gr5

Ultimately though, like the wide majority of FS1 studio programming, the viewers weren’t there. Last week APG averaged just 37,000 viewers according to our Douglas Pucci. The week before was just 29,000 viewers. It’s the same story as we’ve seen with all the FS1 studio shows listed above that have failed to resonate with sports fans and stand on their own independent of live sports lead-ins.

Will a Colin Cowherd clip show improve? The difference will likely be marginal, if there is any. The Herd averaged just 46,000 viewers last week and it’s hard to imagine a clip show of a morning radio show in the evening being a magnet for viewers. But it least it won’t cost anything, I guess. And with FS1 paying Cowherd mega-millions in the midst of budget cuts elsewhere, maybe that’s the most deciding factor here. Wow that’s a depressing paragraph for the state of the industry.

About Matt Yoder

Award winning sportswriter at The Comeback and Awful Announcing. The biggest cat in the whole wide world.